I'm Back.....

Well now, it's been a couple of days since I posted last, I hope that you haven't missed me, or rather that you have, because that would mean that someone was reading it ;-) So far, I'm still going through the classes, but Monday should be the last one, maybe Wednesday. On Monday we actually get to draw our weapons out of the armory and conduct a BZO on them. Our assault rifles have adjustable sights so that we can adjust for distance and wind. These sights are not necessarily centered for everyone. I don't know what BZO stands for, but it is the process of firing our rifles on a normal day at a fairly close target (100m or less) so that we can adjust our sights to a setting that is normalized or zeroed for our body and shooting style. Obviously, when in combat, we won't have the time to estimate windspeed and distance and then adjust our sights and the test our adjustments on a moving target and then readjust based on our test and for each new target. A BZOed rifle allows us to have centered sights that we can then adjust using "Kentucky Windage," which is aiming slightly off target so that the round will hit where we want it to. Other things that we have been learning are how to travel in a convoy and what to do when that convoy is hit by an IED (road-side bomb) or ambushed. We've also learned the various laws that apply to the war hat we are fighting over there and how those laws are supplemented by situation-specific Rules of Engagement. Unfortunately the media that are covering operations out there do not understand what it means to be in a war and to be in a situation that calls for a kill-or-be-killed mentality. They also are not fond of reporting the facts that we required to use an "escalation of force" which means that we have to yell, then brandish our weapon, then use non-lethal force, before we can open fire on anyone including a suicide bomber (unless they open fire first). This means that any Iraqi who gets shot, knew that he was about to get shot and had the opportunity to avoid getting shot. The media also don't report that we care for the dead and wounded Iraqis as well. There are requirements about what we have to do with Iraqis that we kill or even that we find already dead. We are also required to give the same medical attention to enemy combatants that we give to our own Marines. Why does the media insist on showing the brutality of a handful of immature and atypical US fighters, but not the common courtesy and decency that we show to even the guys who were just shooting at us? It's not because that's what sells, heroics and uncommon virtue sell just as many papers, if not more; look at all the movies that have come out in recent days. Then why? Why are they not just as interested in the ways that the insurgents are adapting their use of IEDs to kill more American troops? The way that the whole area clears out when there's an IED planted there, men, women and children, because everyone knows about it besides us. The way that IEDs are used to booby-trap buildings, wrecked vehicles, dead bodies, other IEDs, etc. The way that they plant wrecked vehicles so that when a convoy stops for the obstacle a whole daisy-chain of IEDs goes off next to it. The way that they plant one IED so that when we find it and back off a prescribed distance away, we end up sitting on another one. The way that one man can set off a series of IEDs and decimate a convoy from an entire kilometer away. Why is that not just as intriguing? Why doesn't that sell just as many papers? Semper Fidelis et Vigilo.

Soli Deo Gloria